I wanna share an excerpt from the Rubin Edition of the Artscroll Commentary on the Hebrew Bible.
This encyclopedic work is a multi-volume English-language translation and commentary series on the Tanakh, published by ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications.
It’s known for presenting traditional Jewish (Orthodox) interpretations of the biblical text and draws from classic rabbinic sources.
This particular quote comes from the volume on the book of Samuel.
Take a read:
“Since they (the 2 sons) were in an isolated place (the two quarreled in the field) there were no witnesses to warn the murderer of the penalty, and according to Torah law, any crime committed without such a warning cannot be punished. The woman meant to intimate that Absalom, who was not warned before his crime, was not culpable. Although the king has the prerogative to impose punishment even in such a case, in order to protect society from wanton criminality, he does so at his discretion and has the right to let the law take its course, if he feels that that course is better.”
WOW!
Are you catching what’s being said here?
The Rabbis say David was justified for siding with the widow and pardoning the murder her son committed.
Why?
Because no one was around to warn her surviving son of the consequences.
This is the rabbinic ruling despite the death penalty that the Torah clearly demands for murder.
And let me remind you that the mother of the boys openly admitted her son was guilty of murder.
There was no excuse-making going on in that department.
Yet Judaism, due to its lofty elevation of the ideals of humanitarianism…
Combined with making every effort to show David as a man who never sinned…
Conclude that the death penalty would be wrong in this case.
This was also to be compared to Avishalom.
He also wasn’t warned that ordering the death of his brother, Amnon, was wrong.
Therefore, he also hadn’t committed a crime.
I hope you can see how fallacious this line of reasoning is.
See, here’s what you gotta understand.
When you’re reading rabbinical commentary on the Torah…
And you see the phrase “according to Torah law”…
It’s referring to the rabbinical rulings on the Torah…
And NOT any specific Law of Moses.
I think this is important to point out because the messianic movement often idolizes Jewish ethnicity and elevates rabbinic teachings to unhealthy extremes.
Many Gentiles new to the Hebrew roots or Messianic movement fall into the same trap.
They assume that the rabbinical rulings are the same as those in the Torah.
They are not.
Look, homies, I just demonstrated in this article that they are not.
Since traditional Judaism operates under the assumption that David was utterly sinless…
The rabbis will perform some amazing theological gymnastics to demonstrate this at any cost.
Again, this post is a perfect case in point.
I’ve just shown how one of the most authoritative commentaries in Judaism claims that if someone isn’t clearly warned before doing something wrong…
Even if it’s super obvious (like murder)…
Then it doesn’t count as a crime.
Crazy, right?
That way, David was totally in the right to let the surviving son go free and not punish Absalom for killing his brother.
Boom!
Objective achieved!
David remains squeaky clean and sinless.
Remember, this was the kind of faulty logic Yeshua was famous for calling out when he dealt with the ruling religious elite in his day.
I’ll leave it at that for today.
Stay frosty.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“You have a fine way of setting aside
the commands of God in order
to observe your own traditions!”
-Mark 7:9
“You nullify the word of God
for the sake of your tradition.”
-Matthew 15:6
“You have let go of the
commands of God and
are holding on to human traditions.”
-Mark 7:8
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